The charges against former Cuban leader Raúl Castro — who, at 94, remains a significant figure in Cuban politics — relate to the 1996 shooting down of two civilian aircraft piloted by anti-Castro activists, an incident that left four people dead and sharply worsened relations between the two countries.
Raúl Castro is the younger brother of Fidel Castro, the late revolutionary leader who spearheaded Cuba’s 1959 communist revolution and long stood as a central adversary of the United States.
“We expect that he will show up here by his own will or by another way and go to prison,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a press briefing in Miami, where members of the Cuban-American community gathered in support.
Alongside murder charges, Castro has also been accused of conspiracy to kill American nationals and the destruction of aircraft. Several other Cuban nationals, including air force pilots allegedly involved in the shootdown, were also indicted.
The U.S. government previously cited a domestic indictment as part of its justification for military action in January that led to the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a close ally of Havana.
Former President Donald Trump described the indictment on Wednesday as a “very big moment,” though he downplayed the likelihood of immediate escalation toward Cuba, whose economy has been in prolonged crisis amid tightening U.S. sanctions and an ongoing oil blockade.
“There won’t be escalation. I don’t think there needs to be. Look, the place is falling apart. It’s a mess, and they sort of lost control,” he told reporters.
The Cuban government rejected the allegations, maintaining that the 1996 incident was an act of “legitimate self-defense” in response to what it described as an airspace violation.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel also responded on X, saying the charges lacked legal grounding and “add to the file they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”
Relations between Havana and Washington deteriorated significantly after the incident, though a brief thaw occurred two decades later when Raúl Castro and then-U.S. President Barack Obama moved toward normalization efforts.
Those efforts were later reversed under Trump, who reinstated and expanded sanctions on Cuba, a country already under a long-standing U.S. embargo dating back to the early years of the revolution.
Trump has repeatedly suggested that Cuba could be the next target of U.S. pressure following Venezuela, and earlier this month he even stated that Washington would be “taking over” the island — located about 90 miles (145 km) from Florida — “almost immediately.”
In a Spanish-language video message aimed at Cuban citizens, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, himself a Cuban-American, accused Havana’s leadership of corruption, theft, and repression.
“President Trump is offering a new path between the U.S. and a new Cuba,” Rubio said on a day when Cuban-Americans commemorate the island’s independence from Spain.
“A new Cuba where you have a real opportunity to choose who governs your country and vote to replace them if they are not doing a good job.”
The ousting of Maduro has also had economic repercussions for Cuba, cutting off access to subsidized Venezuelan oil and worsening widespread power shortages and blackouts across the island.
Rubio has further suggested a possible $100 million aid package for Cuba if political reforms are undertaken, saying, “Currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.”
The renewed focus on Cuba comes at a time when Trump is also seeking to end an unpopular conflict he initiated involving Iran, which has resisted U.S. demands for concessions.
Meanwhile, Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, cautioned against escalation and urged a return to diplomatic policy approaches similar to those under Obama.
“Raúl Castro should be held accountable for the murder of Americans over international waters. But this indictment looks less like a pursuit of justice and more like a pretext for escalation, potentially even an illegal invasion of Cuba,” Meeks said.
Trump has framed his hardline stance as a fulfillment of promises to Cuban-American voters, a key demographic in politically decisive Florida.
At Versailles restaurant in Miami, a well-known gathering place for the Cuban diaspora, 67-year-old Cuban-born writer Francys Fabelo said the community had long awaited accountability for the Castros.
“You don’t mess with President Trump. I think this is serious. We hope, the people of Cuba hope, that this is serious,” she said.
